A Study On Application Of Task-based Language Teaching In Oral English Teaching

The study on the Tibetan students'English learning is one of the most typical and representative things in Chinese ethnic groups. Due to the limitation of many factors, the development of English education in Tibetan areas is far behind the social and economical needs. It is one of the solutions to strengthen the Tibetan students'English learning in minorities universities. Speaking is one of the five language skills, also one aim of learning English. The thesis attempts to answer the questions by applying task-based language teaching: how to teach oral English and how to raise the interest of non-English major Tibetan students in learning English and improve their spoken English proficiency.Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) is a kind of language teaching approach based on tasks with its overall aim as developing students'comprehensive abilities in language use. The studies of applying TBLT to oral English at present in China focus on general colleges and universities. Unfortunately there is much less concern about minority students'English learning by applying TBLT.The purpose of this study is to examine the feasibility and effectiveness of applying TBLT to the oral English teaching for non-English major Tibetan students. Jane Willis'TBLT model is adopted and 74 freshmen are chosen from Tibetan Language and Culture School of Northwest University for Nationalities to do the experiment. The 37 students in the experimental class (EC) receive TBLT, while the 37 students in the control class (CC) are taught by using Presentation, Practice and Production (PPP) model. The experimental instruments adopted in the study include pre-test, post-test, pre-questionnaire, post-questionnaire and the interviews of some students.The result of the experiment shows that there are significant differences in improving spoken English proficiency between TBLT and PPP. The analysis of the statistics indicates that TBLT can arouse the students'interest in learning English and TBLT is more effective than PPP model in improving spoken English proficiency.There are six chapters in the thesis. Chapter one tells the backgroud and significance of the study. Chapter two illustrates the research of TBLT at home and abroad and its theoretical foundation. Chapter three presents Jane Willis'TBLT model and the differences between TBLT and PPP. Chapter four is a presentation of research objectives, experimental subjects, experimental instruments and teaching procedures. Chapter five is about data collection and analysis. In Chapter six, the author gives a summary and points out the limitations of the study and the questions for further study.